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Addiction

Addiction happens when a person compulsively uses a substance or engages in a behavior despite negative and sometimes dangerous effects. Sometimes addiction comes with physical dependence, which means a person's body needs a substance to function. Psychological dependence and physical dependence don't always go hand in hand. Gambling is one example of a potential source of psychological dependence.

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Long before drug cartels, crack wars and TV shows about addiction, cocaine was promoted as a wonder drug, sold as a cure-all and praised by some of the greatest minds in medical history, including Sigmund Freud and the pioneering surgeon William Halsted.

Ice cream and other tasty, high-calorie foods would seem to have little in common with cocaine, but in some people's brains they can elicit cravings and trigger responses similar to those caused by addictive drugs, a new study suggests.

Even teenagers know that downing 12 beers in a single night isn't good for their bodies and can be dangerous. But a new study suggests that routine binge drinking like this may cause mental problems -- including a reduced ability to think -- that can last long after the hangovers have worn off.

"I see a scared, scared woman," said Lindsay Lohan's father, Michael, in an interview with CNN's Larry King, referring to how he felt watching the troubled movie star being handcuffed and taken away to jail on Tuesday.

If a friend or relative starts drinking more heavily--or decides to drink less or give up alcohol entirely--you're more likely to do the same, according to a new study that found heavy drinkers, moderate drinkers, and teetotalers tend to cluster within social networks.

When Jack Rogers first heard media reports of Tiger Woods' multiple extramarital affairs, the first thing he did was say a little prayer for Woods and his wife. The second thing he did was tally up the number of women who claimed to have had sex with the famous golfer.

People with Asperger's syndrome would be included in the same diagnostic group as people with autism and pervasive developmental disorders, according to new guidelines under consideration by the American Psychiatric Association.

When singer Michael Jackson asked for the anesthetic, Diprivan, to help him get a good night's sleep, nurse practitioner Cherilyn Lee told CNN, she refused, telling the pop star that if he took the medicine, he might never wake up.

Mike Loverde was 29 when his family intervened in his addiction to prescription painkillers. He remembers his parents driving him from Chicago, Illinois, to a rehab center in rural Indiana. He was crying because he wanted to get high.

As friends of pop star Michael Jackson discuss the role prescription drugs may have played in his Thursday death, the serious health problems that can be triggered by drug interactions are again in the spotlight.

Substance abuse, addiction and its consequences cost U.S. governmental bodies nearly $500 billion in 2005 with only a fraction of state and federal dollars spent on prevention and treatment, according to a report released Thursday.

Adults who were exposed to large amounts of secondhand smoke during childhood have lungs that look different on CT scans from those of people who grew up in a smoke-free environment, a new study suggests.

I was scrolling through family photos on my computer, admiring my two beautiful babies, when I spotted a disturbing trend: My laptop was open in almost all of the pictures. There's my daughter, at 8 months, playing at my feet while I typed away on the couch. There's me and my son, a year later, with the laptop at my side as I held him in my arms.

One day recently, Cynthia Newton's 12-year-old daughter asked her for help with homework, but Newton didn't want to help her, because she was too busy on Facebook. So her daughter went upstairs to her room and sent an e-mail asking her for help, but Newton didn't see the e-mail, because, well, she was too busy on Facebook.

My head is all static like a TV not turned to any working channel. There is a sadness in me that crawls up from my stomach and out my throat and screams so loud my ears bleed from it. I feel emptiness. I feel a great swallowing hole at my center. I feel pain twisting in like glass spirals. I feel leeches sucking at my spine -- around my rib cage -- at the backs of my eyes. I feel it come on me for no reason -- for no reason at all. I'll be at the beach with my dog and my girlfriend and we'll be walking there as the sun is setting and the sky is smudged with toxic colors. The wind will be blowing and there'll be nothing I have to do but go get something to eat and maybe watch a movie, or something but, still, out of nowhere, the darkness will come up on me, grab me by the throat, tighten, pull me down, down, f---ing down. It's this grave opened up for me -- this tomb that closes around me and is cemented solid shut. My voice is silenced. I curl into myself, fetus style, shrinking until I am almost nothing at all.

A no-frills bar called Goober's, just north of Providence, Rhode Island, is probably the last place you'd expect to find a debate over cutting-edge addiction therapy. But this is where Walter Kent, a retired mechanic, spends his Fridays. He helps in the kitchen and hangs out in the bar, catching up with old friends.

Is your kindergartner easily distracted? Maybe a little hyper? This might seem like typical child behavior but a new study published in the March 2009 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine suggests it could be a red flag for a potential gambling addiction as he or she ages.

Walking through a crowded shopping mall can bring back memories of war. The shifting crowds, the jostle of passers-by and the din can all trigger Army Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith's post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Californication" star David Duchovny made headlines for voluntarily entering rehab last week. But it wasn't for drugs or alcohol. It was for another dependency, one that affects millions of Americans but is seldom discussed: sex addiction.